A former player under Mike Rice denies a report that the fired Rutgers coach abused players—physically, verbally or otherwise—at any point while head coach at Robert Morris.

Jimmy Langhurst, who played under Rice for each of the coach's three seasons (2007-10) with the Colonials, told Sporting News that the sort of behavior uncovered last week by ESPN "never happened" on his former team. Rice was shown on a segment of "Behind The Lines" shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at Rutgers players in practice while using gay slurs.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday morning that a former Robert Morris player told school officials that Rice exhibited similar behavior on occasion during his time with the small Northeast Conference program. In addition, a former Rutgers staff member told ESPN that Rice also had multiple "coaches-versus-players" brawls.

Langhurst denies any of the allegations occurred.

"That never happened," he said. "The only brawls that ever might have occurred were player-vs-player, and at the end of the day, we're all still brothers. Coach Rice always preached that we were family. We'd go back and sit together at the dinner table"

Robert Morris athletic director Craig Coleman told Sporting News that an internal investigation uncovered no evidence of alleged "brawls." Coleman said that of the 17 people interviewed by the athletic department, one player said he had homophobic slurs directed at him and remembered Rice throwing a basketball at a member of the team. The same player also recalled a shoving match between the coach and a teammate during halftime of a game, but the player allegedly involved in the altercation didn't recall the incident when asked as part of RMU's investigation.

Coleman wants people to draw their own conclusions from the school's report, but added that he was disturbed by assertions in the national media that the same crude behavior "must have happened" at Robert Morris, too.

"The difference in pressure (between RMU and Rutgers) is night and day," Coleman said. "Nevertheless, we wanted to find out what was going on and if any of this had happened."

Langhurst wouldn't speculate as to what might have changed in his coach between stops at Robert Morris and Rutgers, saying only that the coach he knew with the Colonials wasn't the man he saw in the jarring "OTL" video.

"I'm surprised," said Langhurst, who played overseas last season with the British Basketball League's Sheffield Sharks. "The colorful language, he used, but I think every college coach uses. It was nothing derogatory, just cursing.

"I definitely don't condone what happened, but from my experience, he's a great coach. As a team, we'd do anything for him, and he'd do anything for us."

Former players from Rutgers also have stepped forward in defense of Rice, who was internally suspended in November for the same video that ultimately resulted in his firing. Langhurst wouldn't go that far.

"I think Rutgers had to do what they did," he said. "The video is what it is."